Bindandi Ást
by ILookDaftWithOneShoe
Summary: At first, Tony casting a love spell on himself and falling in love with Loki seems fantastic. After all, Tony's the enemy, and he's full of information. But things get out of control fast, and Loki finds himself feeling things he really wishes he wasn't.
1. Love At First Sight

**A/N: **I told you I'd write it. I told you I would. Why Tony Stark Shouldn't Mess With Magic, redone.

This is the introduction. The crunchy good bits start soon.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Love At First Sight**

Contrary to what many people thought, Loki _was_ capable of spending time with Thor without trying to kill or maim him. Or run away. Or generally reacting negatively.

But these calm times were pretty rare.

Usually they were the result of Loki needing something through official channels in Asgard, such as news or goods. On this occasion, Loki was enquiring after one of his few friends in Asgard, his nurse as a child, who was reaching the end of her very long life.

It was as the conversation was declining into small talk that Loki felt it. Like his heartbeat had just been grabbed by someone and yanked, then tied to a tall, strong post in the middle of a field.

A little overdescriptive, Loki knew, but accurate.

Fortunate, his skill in the field of magic allowed him to sense where said post was, and after briefly accusing Thor of tricking him, Loki vanished.

Following the trail, he found himself in a part of the Avengers Tower that he hadn't seen before. It was big, full of workbenches and equipment and parts sprawled all over the workbenches and the equipment.

As soon as he materialised, though, the room began flashing red, the doors all locked down and several lasers were pointed at him.

"Please remain still, sir," a clinical voice with an accent not unlike his own said. "The Avengers will be here shortly."

This didn't bother Loki overly, and he continued on his business, tracking down the source of the binding.

He found Iron Man, Tony Stark, crumpled unconscious on the floor. This also didn't bother Loki overly, but what did both him was how he could sense the binding between them. So he sat down on a workbench cross-legged, closed his eyes, and traced the magic in his mind.

A binding spell, as he'd thought. One-sided, mostly. Quite powerful, and with an odd energy signature that seemed too precise and uniform for a living creature to have created.

Somehow Stark had managed to place a binding spell on himself. The issue was, binding spells needed two living hosts, and Stark was only one. Loki's magic must have called to it like gravity.

Which raised the question: what type of binding spell was it? Loki could only hope that it was a standard edition subservience binding; ordering Stark around would be quite entertaining. But there was something about it, something blue and curly and soft - or at least that's what the magic felt like in his mind - that warned him that it could be much, much worse.

Stark was waking up. Loki just sat there expectantly, even as the alarms were still going off.

"Loki!" Stark said loudly, but he didn't seem unhappy. Quite the opposite.

The inventor crawled to his feet, seemingly uninjured. He smiled warmly at Loki. "It's good to see you here. Not that I'm the type to be straightforward with my emotions and all that, but I've never been more sure of anything. Ever."

There was a sinking feeling in Loki's chest. He knew what was going to happen next.

"Loki, I love you," Stark said.

"I very much doubt that," Loki replied.

"Never been more sure about anything. You ever looked at yourself? You're just about perfect. Smart and funny and full of alien weirdness and you're just..." Stark trailed off, his hands swirling happily. "I love you, Lokes."

"You're being affected by binding spell. The _bindandi ást_, to be exact," Loki told him. He didn't expect it to work.

"Nah. This is real. I've never even seen a Bindi Oust."

"What were you doing before you fell unconscious?" Loki said.

That slowed Stark down for a moment. He thought about it, then admitted that he didn't know.

Which settled things in Loki's mind. Somehow, either someone else or Stark himself had managed to cast a binding spell.

"This is rather irritating. Stand still for a minute and do nothing," Loki said.

The alarms were still going as Loki sat down again on a workbench and started concentrating. He was surprised at how long response to it was taking.

Mentally, he tried to grasp the thread of magic bonding the pair of them and snap it. But it slid away from him time and time again, and when he firmly grasped it, it was unbreakable.

He was interrupted by Stark. "You're so cute when you concentrate."

"I was led to believe you have a greater-than-average intelligence, Stark," Loki said. "I was hoping that 'cute' wasn't part of your vocabulary."

"You kidding me? If you're going to be smart and talk proper, you're gonna get boring fast," Stark said. "Pull that dildo out of your ass and lighten up, big guy."

Loki frowned, still with his eyes closed. Normally he enjoyed joking around with Stark on the battlefield, but it really wasn't the time.

He was beginning to accept that he couldn't break the spell when he felt Stark's hands on his arms.

One of Loki's eyes opened. "Don't touch me."

He knew that Stark touching him was helping to alleviate the yank of the spell, but he still had boundaries.

Then Loki spotted the Captain through the glass doorway separating the lab from the elevator and stairwell. Which was when Loki had an idea. Stark was in love with him, yes? He'd been looking for a way to get access to some of the Avengers' information. And now he had the perfect cover.

Making sure that the Captain was watching, he cupped the back of Tony's neck and pulled him closer, pressing their lips together with what he assumed was a relationship level of affection.

Stark seemed happy with this turn of events, kissing back with rather a lot of enthusiasm.

Then, theatrically, Loki broke away and raised an eyebrow at the gathered Avengers, who looked more than a little shocked. Thor was there, a little gobsmacked.

"Turn off the alarm," Loki said to Tony, who obeyed. "And let them in."

Stark did this too, and the Avengers piled in.

"You were a little slow," Loki said, still with his hands on Tony. "With that alarm going off, he could have been killed by me already."

"That alarm has gone off several times a day all week," Natasha said dismissively.

Loki filed that piece of information away. He needed to find out what it was a warning for.

"False alarm. Loki set it off," Stark said.

"That's not a false alarm," Clint noted. "He's right there."

"I know; isn't it great?" Stark grinned.

"Loki?" Thor said uncertainly.

"I suppose now is an excellent time to tell all of you," Loki said.

"I love Loki!" Stark announced cheerfully. He was met by shock and surprise. "Oh, and he loves me. It's win-win."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Loki. "Is this true?"

"As true as anything I've ever said," Loki said with an innocent little smile. "Scratch that. As true as anything you've ever said."

"And that means he's serious," Stark said, pecking Loki on the cheek.

Loki worked rather hard and created a smile that suggested he was uncontrollably in love.

"I knew Tony was up to something!" Clint crowed. "All that time spent in your lab or your room - you said SHIELD had put you up to something, but really you were just fucking Loki!"

Loki suddenly mentally took the thread of the spell and yanked it, disorientating Tony to keep him quiet. "That's right," he smiled. "We have excellent footage, if you'd like to see."

Clint was about to say something when Thor cut him off. "I would like to discuss this with you privately, Loki."

Really, everyone was taking it surprisingly well considering what Loki had done to the Avengers symbol on the building last week.

"And if that's all," Loki said finally, turning his head back to a still slightly confused Stark and kissing him again. "We're busy."

Clint just shrugged and left. Steve followed, after giving Loki a serious look for a moment. Thor also gave a serious look and left. It was just Bruce and Natasha looking them over sceptically, and then they were gone too.

"And now we have some time to ourselves..." Stark said suggestively, Loki's magic yanking forgotten in favour of sliding his hands up Loki's thighs.

Loki twitched away. "I am afraid, little Stark, that I really must leave you for now. But I'll be back, don't you worry."

He got to his feet, made sure his leathers were straight and tidy.

"Tony," Stark said.

Loki shot him a questioning look.

"Call me Tony. C'mon, we're dating," Tony urged.

Loki acknowledged that, then said "Do not talk to the Avengers about our relationship."

Tony nodded.

Then Loki vanished.

-O.O-

Loki returned to his apartment feeling rather happy. Tony was the clever one of the Avengers, their source of information and new technology, and now Loki owned him. All through a mysterious happening in Tony's lab that Loki couldn't identify.

It was all very convenient, or so Loki couldn't help feeling. He wondered if someone was setting him up, Amora maybe. It was her style. But at this point, since the spell was one-sided, he really couldn't see how there was any kind of downside.

In fact, he wasn't even feeling any ill effects of not being near Tony. This was probably not true for his thrall, or so he suspected. They were currently separated by a few kilometres.

Meanwhile, he could sit somewhere quiet and properly meditate on the magic currently binding Tony to him like a dog on a leash.

When customising his apartment - which was modern and comfortable, in dark shades - Loki had actually included a special place for him to scry and meditate and generally perform magic that required him to be static and comfortable. While perusing a local furniture store, he'd come across the perfect furnishing.

Loki sank down into his large bean bag and closed his eyes.

He could feel the link of the magic. But despite his prodigious skill in that sort of thing, he couldn't break it if he wanted to. Usually something like that could be broken by unwinding the signature of whoever had cast it, but it didn't seem to have one. Machine-made, maybe, but that was far beyond Midgardian skill. They didn't even seem to be sure what magic was. There wasn't a chance Tony could have done this, or so he believed.

His efforts at figuring out what it was were interrupted by a loud knocking from elsewhere. Seeing as he was already there, Loki didn't bother to stand, instead scrying what was going on.

Stark. Tony was at his balcony door in his Iron Man suit. Was the pull of the spell really so strong that Tony could locate him right down to his apartment?

Evidently, yes, because he'd made certain and double-certain that no one knew where he was currently living.

Reluctantly, he appeared at the doorway and opened it without a word, waiting for Tony to talk first. Which he did.

"Loki!" Tony said. "I just had to see you. Couldn't help myself; I just miss you when you're not around."

Loki clenched his jaw. Then he smiled. He couldn't really force Tony away without letting the Avengers know that they actually weren't dating.

"Come in," Loki said politely.

Tony got out of the suit and smeared himself across the couch, then got up. "You want a coffee? I'm going to make a coffee."

Loki just gestured towards the kitchen. He would let Tony relax, then he could probably get some information out of him.

When Tony was settled, Loki sat down on the couch next to him at a companionable distance.

"Talk to me," Loki said, acting his friendliest.

"What about?" Tony said.

"Tell me about the Avengers' Tower," Loki said.

"Okay. Well, first, there's JARVIS. He's my baby. And my caretaker, sort of..."

Tony launched into an explanation, and Loki felt a little hum of contentment.


	2. Love Conquers All

**A/N: **As is hinted, this takes place a year or two after current canon.

Because I'm a huge sucker, this fic will involve worldbuilding.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Love Conquers All**

Loki managed to pry Tony off him eventually. By that time he'd obtained everything he ever wanted to know about the security of the Avengers' Tower.

This prying was obtained by returning to the tower and telling Tony he was having a private conversation with his brother that should not be interrupted.

He wasn't actually planning to do this, but he was hoping that Tony's respect for Thor's brotherly feelings outweighed the pull of the _bindiefni._ This was proven when Tony backed off, but Loki saw the way he looked just slightly pained.

It seemed that the benefits of the spell were sadly overshadowed by the negatives - leaving Tony's presence was near-impossible unless he left the realm, and the pain of it might kill him.

Killing Tony was never the goal.

This was kind of redundant, because Loki couldn't break the spell anyway.

Unfortunately, Thor did actually drag him in for a conversation, and Loki was largely powerless to resist, owing to the fact he was apparently dating one of the Avengers now and therefore not being a colossal douchebag.

Thor herded him into his bedroom and sat on the bed. "Loki. What trick are you playing, and why are you making Tony your victim?"

Loki went for sincerity. "Must you think so lowly of me? I make an effort to find someone to settle my twisted spirit and you spit accusations at me. In your eyes I am irredeemable."

Thor looked just a little unimpressed. "Unfortunately, dear brother, you make distrust so easy for me."

"I do," Loki admitted. "But never in affairs of the heart. Like I would be so cruel."

"Lorelei-"

"Did not count," Loki tutted. "You assumed that was a love spell. Her sister simply could not believe she was interested in me, and spread that rumour to account for it."

"Hm."

"Ask her yourself," Loki said with a flourish. "I am...'dating' Tony Stark. If you have an issue with that, then you are not the caring brother you present yourself as."

That was the ultimate blackmail. Thor's one firm anchor when talking to Loki was how much of a good brother he was, and Loki was making it clear that accusing him of skulduggery of the romantic type would definitely plant him firmly in the 'bad brother' zone.

Thor never, ever wanted to be there.

"I believe this conversation is over," Loki said, vanishing back to his apartment neatly.

-O.O-

Loki's newly gifted knowledge of the security systems of the Avengers' Tower was not to be wasted. In fact, within a day, he'd passed this information off to a contact of his, Whitney Frost, in exchange for some artifacts she'd come across somewhere or the other. No doubt she'd barter it for something else and make a pretty profit.

Humans.

But now Loki had said artifacts, and he was using them to great effect. His goal mostly revolved around finding and accessing an ancient library locked away on Svartalfheim. The Svartalfar had, during their time of actually being a civilisation, beyond mastered transfiguration and alteration magic and Loki wanted to be the next to get his hands on it. A little bit of magic unknown to the other major spellcasters of the Nine Realms never went down badly in a tough situation.

Svartalfheim carried bad memories for Loki. Asgard carried bad memories for him too. That left him with seven Realms.

It was as he was concentrating, poring over what were seemingly rocks - actually petrified scrolls that needed disenchanting and deciphering - that there was an enthusiastic knock at the balcony door.

Stark. Of course.

But having a fake relationship meant he had to maintain it, and the _bindiefni_ had to be taking its' toll on Tony after a day's separation.

With a flick of his hands and a tiny swirl of green light, the door unlocked and opened. Tony removed himself from the suit and came in.

"Hey, beautiful. What've you been up to?" Tony said, instantly moving forward to rest his hand on Loki's waist.

Loki almost felt sorry for him. Requiring physical contact like that had to be rather unpleasant.

"Deciphering ancient mysteries," Loki said smoothly.

"You been doing that all day?" Tony asked. Then, not waiting for an answer: "Come on. Even nerds need time out. Let's go somewhere."

Loki could and had studied with minimal movement for days at a time. A few hours caused him no distress and he wanted to keep working.

But he was also tempted by the offer of heading out and causing mischief with Tony as his alibi.

"Perhaps we should. Where would your somewhere be?"

Tony bit his lip, clearly thinking of perfect places he could take his beloved boyfriend. "The zoo. Let's go to the zoo."

Loki did not like zoos. Zoos were places where lovely animals were in cages. He told Tony this.

"Well. Not much I can do about that. Donate some money to it maybe. How about we ... you can teleport, yeah?"

"That depends on the where."

"To Malibu. My house in Malibu."

"I will confess I don't know where that is," Loki said.

Tony got out his phone and showed Loki. Then Loki took Tony's hand and concentrated for a split second.

In the last few years, Loki's magical power had developed amazingly. No more were illusions his central trick. Now he had a huge repertoire of all kinds of magical manoeuvers, and teleportation was one of his favourites.

Within a blink, they were somewhere much sunnier, and with a surprisingly nice view. But quieter, and Loki's senses were quick to label it as more stagnant. He preferred New York already.

"This is it," Tony said with a flourish. "My grand Malibu home. Come on, lover boy, I wanna show you my workshop."

He snatched Loki's hand and led him through the still and silent house, taking him down a stairwell and into a nest of machine parts and paraphernalia.

This was different. This was what Midgard and so many other people relied on, but reduced down to the raw ingredients.

Loki knew that Stark had built the Iron Man suit, of course. And that he was a prolific engineer and creator. But actually seeing it in person was quite different from reading it off the printout Barton had passed him years ago, and Loki had to admit to himself that he was somewhat impressed.

He also said this out loud, but he made sure it sounded curious and somewhat affectionate.

"I must confess, I have always been amazed by the Iron Man suit," Loki told him. "It would greatly interest me to be party to a true examination of it from the creator himself."

"You've come to the right guy," Tony grinned proudly. "You're so perfect. You're such a good listener. I love you, you know that?"

For just a split second, Loki almost felt guilty. The moment passed.

"JARVIS, get me a full structural diagram of the most recent mark suit," Tony said.

This directive was followed, and Tony immediately began picking it apart and explaining it to Loki excitedly.

Not only did Loki ask for a surveillance copy of the lecture - and Tony gave it to him, helpful thrall, he sent it to his phone - but he enjoyed it, too.

Which was irritating.

He didn't get any mischief achieved. He just pissed himself off by enjoying himself. And obtained that information about the Iron Man suit.

When he wanted to head home and keep examining the scrolls, Tony gave him a counter-offer: come to Avengers' Tower. We're having a movie night. Popcorn and the such. Everyone can get used to having you around, love.

Now that did mean mischief. Mostly the pleasure of traipsing round in front of the Avengers with one of their own in tow.

"Come on, Lokes. It'll be fun. You tried much Earth food? You can go nuts in the kitchen. I wanna see you on coffee," Tony said excitedly.

The prospect of screwing round with the Avengers mixed with the infectiousness of Tony's excitement and Loki found himself quite wanting to go.

"Of course, dearest," Loki said. "Anything for you."

"You're amazing," Tony grinned. "Come on, make with the magic fingers."

In another instant, they had vanished to the Avengers' Tower, appearing right in the living area.

Tony put his hands up. "Before anyone says anything rude, Loki's just chilling with us. He's a chill kinda guy, right, babe?"

Loki didn't particularly appreciate the use of the word 'chill', but he smiled innocently and nodded anyway. "I come in peace."

"But don't take him to our leader," Tony added.

Everyone was just kind of staring as Tony pulled Loki in the general direction of the kitchen and offered him a mango. It was hilarious, for the lack of a better word. Loki wished, for a moment, that he had a camera, but he had to rely on his memories.

Even the Black Widow, Natasha, was just watching Loki without action. Though her hand had strayed into her jacket pocket, whatever that meant.

Loki accepted the mango and also the biscuits and the freeze-dried blueberries. Magic came easily to Loki, but his combination of an alien metabolism and channeling the energy through himself did make him hungry.

"You ever had popcorn?" Tony asked.

Loki had never actually seen corn before; it wasn't exactly a Norse vegetable. But he had heard of it.

"I do not believe so," Loki told him.

"Oh, I'm gonna stuff you full of this," Tony said excitedly, retrieving little packets out of a cupboard. "Extra buttery, just for you. You're a god, you're not going to get cholesterol."

Loki knew of and rather liked butter.

It didn't take long for the popcorn to be done, and when Loki tried some, he ended up snatching the bag and taking as much as he wanted for himself. It was delicious, to his surprise.

The resulting playfight from Tony trying to get the popcorn back was watched by all of the Avengers, still shocked. Loki kept up the fight instead of paralysing Tony and leaving just to keep the Avengers in shock.

Then Tony picked a movie and settled down, leaning against Loki affectionately.

_This is just too entertaining,_ Loki thought with a little smile to himself as the Avengers awkwardly settled down to watch the movie with him.

-O.O-

Loki was decently nestled in his bean bag the next day when Doom appeared in the middle of his room.

"You have something for me?" Doom asked.

"That I do," Loki smiled, not getting up. This was a tidy display of who was in control. "You have an interest in Tony Stark's work. The potential to use his designs to better your own is great. Am I correct?"

"His work is not more skilled than my own," Doom replied sharply.

"I did not say that, Doom. A sore spot, perhaps?" Loki grinned.

"What do you have for me?" Doom said, bringing the conversation on track.

"The most recent design of the Iron Man suit," Loki said. "Complete with an explanation of its' entirety by Stark himself."

Doom's stance changed to one of surprise. "How did you come across this?"

"Ask me no questions and I will not butcher you and throw you in the harbour," Loki shrugged.

"Name your price."

"Recently you obtained certain petrified scrolls from the archives of Doctor Strange himself," Loki said. "Illegally, I might add. I would steal them from you, but this suits me better. I want those scrolls. You cannot decipher them with your meagre skills."

This seemed to irritate Doom, and rightly so, but he nodded in compliance.

"Bring them to me, and you can have my recording," Loki said. He pulled a flash drive from his overcoat and wiggled it.

Doom wouldn't take it from him forcibly. Doom wouldn't dare.

With a wave of his hand, Doom pulled several somethings made of stone from a dimensional pocket and placed them on the table. Loki threw the flash drive to Doom.

"Good doing business," Loki said cheerfully.

Doom nodded once, then disappeared.

Managing to wriggle out of the bean bag - it felt nice when his chair wouldn't let him leave - Loki made his way to the table and gently and carefully separated the scrolls, then sat down and started the arduous process of depetrifying them.


	3. Love Abounds, Love Surrounds

**Chapter 3: Love Abounds, Love Surrounds**

There were upsides and downsides to the Tony situation.

The primary upside was how easy everything was becoming now that he had Tony Stark on his side and all the perks that came from such an association.

The primary downside was that he was being trailed by an amorous superhero who'd evidently not just been enthralled but lobotomised by the magic. He was acting pretty dumb. And most unlike himself.

Loki had never particularly hated Stark. He was probably the most tolerable of Thor's new crowd. But the _bindeifni_ somewhat overrode his IQ, so unless Tony was pressed skin-to-skin with his master, he seemed to be dumber than a brick.

It really was a toss-up between personal space and dumbass company.

He devoted a few hours a day to spending time with Tony, and to keep his cover, varied things, having a picnic in Central Park or going out to dinner or something. Now that the spell had settled after a few days, once Tony had been in Loki's company for half an hour or so, the magic rebalanced itself and he was largely normal.

"So, with everything I've said in the past, that's basically my life story," Tony admitted. "At least your dad was a self-absorbed preferential asscheek too. We're so similar."

Barring the part where Tony randomly peppered the conversation with similarities drawn between them or compliments for Loki. Some of these were grossly inaccurate, like calling Loki 'so peaceful' and 'a great listener'.

So that had been the last few weeks. Loki had appeared in the Avengers' Tower a few times. No one, possibly barring Thor, was happy to see him. No one was comfortable around him. And on top of that, Tony was usually cheerfully talking away beside him, which made things more awkward.

For everyone else, of course. Loki reveled in the awkward feelings of others.

Loki was not an inherently lonely person, but he did find that having someone theoretically harmless to talk to did take the edge off things, especially when he'd been poring over depetrified scrolls for hours at a time.

On the occasion that was most memorable after, Loki was out having dinner with Tony.

The most important question that Loki asked Tony that night had a backstory to it:

Over the last few weeks Loki had quickly developed a reputation of being the go-to guy for Avengers-based information and minor assets. It was serving him well; not only had he acquired every Svartalfar scroll that was on Midgard, he'd also gotten his mitts on so many other tomes and artifacts he'd had his eye on without lifting a finger or burning bridges.

Oh, Loki could steal, trick and lie. But doing nothing was so much easier.

And, now that spell had stabilised, having Stark around wasn't unpleasant either.

He'd had no luck breaking the spell. Nothing seemed to work, and he had some excellent cursebreaking objects at his disposal. No doubt there were people in Asgard or elsewhere that could help, but Loki was disinclined to seek them until it became convenient.

But the question. Doom had been most delighted to upgrade his Doombots with Iron Man elements. Fortunately for the shreds of Loki's conscience, the information didn't give him a hugely noticeable advantage over Tony, though it could lead to a few bugs in the next battle against him. As such, Doom had come to Loki for more information.

He'd wanted the blueprints to the Helicarrier. SHIELD's flying base made his operations more difficult, able to attack and observe as it could, as well being stuffed full of ready-to-respond agents. This almost, _almost_ went against the slightly flimsy barrier of morals he'd built himself, but he'd managed to reason that the Helicarrier was amazingly defended anyway. Giving Doom the blueprints probably wouldn't do much.

So his question was:

"Darling, what do you know about SHIELD's Helicarrier?"

"Honey," Tony replied with a cheeky grin. "You're talking to the guy who designed it. Why? You like it?"

"It's amazing," Loki said. "Could you show me a little more about it?"

"'Course. I'll show you later, when you come over to my place, hopefully to spend the night," Tony said, accompanied by a suggestive eyebrow movement.

"Asgardian courtship," Loki tutted. That had been his excuse.

Tony pouted. Then gave up on that. "Will you at least watch a movie with me? You're killing me here, babe. How do people on Asgard have any fun?"

"Trust me," Loki sighed. "They don't."

"Not hard to see why you left, then. I mean, Thor goes on about 'Oh brother, if only you'd come home-'" Tony interrupted himself with a forkful of curry. "''Everyone misses you ever so much!' Seems to me that he's got rose-tinted glasses on."

"I can guess the meaning of that phrase, and by no means are you wrong," Loki agreed. "Why your people expect Thor to carry the most accurate form of events, I will never understand."

"Probably has something to do with the whole 'God of Lies' thing," Tony shrugged.

Loki felt the little twinge of the bond as Tony was dragged into saying something stupidly romantic. It was like a tic of Tony's.

"That's just a name, though. You're the sweetest, most honest man ever. I love you so much," Tony said.

Loki hated his dumb faux-romantic moments. It spoiled the mood.

The mood itself was not especially romantic. Closer to companionable.

"Very good," Loki said. Then he leaned some mental weight on the bond. Persuasion. "Will you give me a copy of the Helicarrier blueprints?"

"Of course, honeybunch. You don't even need to ask," Tony smiled.

-O.O-

An hour later, they were in Tony's lab, and Tony was giving Loki a virtual tour of the Helicarrier.

"So here's the command area..." Tony said, pointing. "That's the bit you got Clint to shoot. That raised area is where Fury stands. It's high-up to make him feel important."

Loki smirked at the thought. He had respect for Fury, just a little bit of it, but the resemblance to Odin make Loki hate him far more.

"And this was my cell," Loki said, amused. How things had changed.

"Damn straight. Brilliant design, really. Problem is, you're just too good," Tony said.

"That I am."

"Where's your flash drive?" Tony asked him.

Loki retrieved it from his coat, and Tony took it off him and plugged it in.

"I wrote you a poem," Tony said.

Loki felt another romantic tic coming on from Tony's end of the bond, and had to physically clench his jaw to stop himself from hurting the poor dumb animal.

_"His hair is as dark as a raven's wing-"_

Loki cut him off right there. "Enough. Would you like to watch a movie?"

That was the one bonding exercise that Loki was into. It was public, so the Avengers could see them being cutesy and Tony couldn't get too handsy, Tony enjoyed it, and Loki was getting an education in Midgardian oddities.

Also popcorn. Extra buttery.

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking last night that you should watch _Mean Girls._ Get a real taste of life on Earth, huh?"

Loki had to take his word for it.

As it turned out,_ Mean Girls_ was a favourite of the other Avengers, so they all piled in to the living room. Tony and Loki occupied their own couch, with Tony leaning against Loki and resting the popcorn bowl in his faux paramour's lap for convenience.

The other Avengers, Thor particularly, felt the need to look away when they began feeding each other.

-O.O-

Later, Loki was thanking Tony for the night out and about to leave when Tony kissed him.

Loki pushed him away. "Not quite yet, Tony. Do not disrespect my culture."

"You _hate_ your culture," Tony wheedled.

"I hate the people. I respect my own customs," Loki lied.

That had a been a flimsy reason from the start, which Loki knew full well. The real reason was much simpler:

Despite Tony's many suggestions to the contrary, Loki had gone no further than he had on the first day - just fairly chaste kisses. The reason for this had nothing to do with Stark's physical attractiveness, which was not limited particularly, but due to Loki's feeling that when it was all over, any of Tony's guilt could be somehow pacified by the thought that he was trapped in a _bindeifni,_ but there wasn't a chance he'd be able to erase the feeling of Loki's hands on him. Loki had been in a similar position. He had limits.

"Sure, okay. Doesn't matter," Tony said airily. "Goodnight, anyway. I love you."

"Goodnight, Stark," Loki murmured, vanishing in a flash of magic back to his own apartment.

The fact was, without the scrolls, Doom actually had nothing to offer him. But Doom sorely wanted the Helicarrier designs for his own nefarious purposes. So they'd made a deal.

Loki got Doom the designs, and Doom went to the auctions of Madripoor and obtained for Loki a whole host of things he'd been meaning to steal from various people.

The things he was obtaining were literally priceless. Some of them had been stolen from Stephen Strange himself; in Loki's hands, they were worth a million Helicarriers. Doom was easily the one losing the transaction. But Loki had smiled and charmed and flirted - Doom quietly seemed to have a thing for Loki when he smiled - and Doom had agreed to Loki's terms.

Oh, the devil and Loki. There was no point, or so Loki felt, in playing a game he wasn't going to win.

In any case, once Loki presented proof that he had the goods, Doom was going to secure everything. Two days, max, before everything went down in Loki's favour.

-O.O-

Those two days were occupied by Loki's two most common activities as of late: studying scrolls and spending time with his bond-mate.

Loki found it easier to smile on Tony's arrival. Generally speaking, he was pleasant to be around.

Tony had confessed to his curiosity about Loki's magic, so after a few hours of Loki sitting in his bean bag doing magic tricks for him, they ended up in Tony's lab playing around idly. Loki was shooting magical sparks at Tony's scanners, which were flipping the fuck out as Tony tried to make sense of the readings.

Bruce had declined the invitation to join in the party.

They did successfully manage to wrangle Thor and Natasha into a game of cards later while Clint watched in distaste, but Natasha only seemed to be there to get a more accurate read on Loki. The Avengers really didn't trust his presence.

The next morning was when Loki and Doom did their dirty deal. Loki was over the moon with his new toys, all hidden in a basement that had previously belonged to Wilson Fisk and now belonged to Loki too.

Loki was in said basement rummaging through things - some of them were so intensely magical they made his hair start to break free of its slick a little - when Stark found him. Unsurprising. The bond was practically a GPS.

"Wow," Tony said, looking around in amazement. "Cool toys. Can I play with'im?"

"Why not," Loki said, mentally reminding himself to wipe the place and location from Tony's mind at some point. "Don't touch the Serpent Crown. It will destroy your weak will."

"Gotcha," Tony said. "Wait, what does it look like?"

"A crown made of serpents," Loki said distractedly.

Tony made an acknowledging sound and started inspecting Loki's things.

About half an hour passed that way. Then Loki's senses detected movement in other places in the building. Several people, moving sneakily.

Loki's eyebrows had just drawn into a frown when the door burst open and many black-clad people rushed in, guns up high.

"Tony Stark!" one said. "You are under arrest for treason and the selling of state secrets!"

"What the-" Tony began.

"Shit, it's Loki!" another one said, her hand wavering on her gun slightly. Loki had a fierce reputation.

"That it is," Loki snarled, on his feet and fully armoured in a second.

He wanted to leave. He'd been shot before; it had hurt a lot, even if it was unlikely to be fatal.

But they wanted Tony, not him. They would destroy him; SHIELD would, for what Loki had made him do.

That would probably make the top five of shitty things Loki had done.

After a moment or two, Loki thought _damn it_, grabbed Tony's arm, and vanished the pair of them a long way away.


	4. Love Embraces All

**Chapter 4:** **Love Embraces All**

Originally, Loki just wanted to get the pair of them to somewhere safe so he could regroup. The most important thing was that no one found his New York apartment and everything in it. Second most important thing was to stop Tony from being prosecuted for the crimes Loki had made him commit.

So at first he simply took them both to Tony's penthouse. It wouldn't be secure long, but it was somewhere.

"Stark. Tony," Loki said shortly. "Do you have anywhere secure we can go on Earth? I would rather not expend the energy to take us off-world."

"SHIELD has eyes everywhere," Tony admitted. "Literally. They can access most security cameras and watch everywhere. I don't own anywhere properly remote enough to get away from them."

"Of course," Loki said with a sigh. "Nothing can be easy."

"Can I help?"

"Do you understand that you're under a love spell, the_ bindandi ást?"_

"I'm not. I'm really not."

"Then no," Loki said shortly. There wasn't really much more he could add to that. "Here's the plan, though I'm aware that in your current state it will fly in one ear and out the other. We head to a little retreat of mine on an Alfheimr mountain. I try and break the spell, and when I succeed, I mail you back to Midgard and we never speak of this again."

"What?"

"Never mind," Loki said, offering his hand. "Let's go."

A few years back, Loki hadn't really been able to teleport between worlds, but thanks to a lot of practice, he could do it now. It wasn't especially fun, though, not like using the bridges between worlds. But he could.

He took Tony's warm hand in his own - Tony grinned at him delightedly - and then pulled them through the branches of Yggdrasil and into Alfheim.

Tony collapsed on the floor of the cottage when they arrived. Loki did not.

"Teleporting is not always easy on the weak, mortal, or unpracticed," Loki said dryly, scooping Tony up and dropping him on the bed.

It was a little cabin, very Alfheimr-mountain-farmer, with a bed, wood stove, bench, and tap dominating its features. Of course, if one was to peel back the animal skin on the floor, they'd quickly discover the cliched trapdoor leading down to Loki's actual den of evil, where he stored a decent number of his questionable belongings.

Also a dragon egg he was incubating. Just BTW.

But Tony didn't need to know any of that. Tony needed to stay unconscious while Loki worked on the spell.

He'd tried before, of course, but he hadn't put every ounce of his energy into it, mostly because he hadn't wanted to break the spell at the time.

So he sat down on the corner of the bed and got to work.

As he'd previously discovered, it was a slippery blue thread. He couldn't grip it properly; it was completely uniform, with absolutely no personal flair or imperfection that could allow him to pull it apart. Taking apart binding spells that one hadn't cast was difficult at the best of times, but that was insane.

He sat there and scratched over every part of the spell with his mind to no result. There was only one thing for it; he was going to have to take the spell back to the source and work with it there.

And for that, he'd need to interrogate Tony.

Loki gave him a gentle shake on the shoulder. "Wake up, Stark. And please don't act like an idiot."

Tony stirred, then grinned and said "I'm just a fool for love, baby."

"Yes, you are," Loki sighed. He was rather resigned to spending time with Tony in his current state. "Wake up properly. There's no food here and I'd rather we didn't starve."

Tony got himself off the bed. "Right. So, are we going to a market or something?"

At least the spell meant he was taking everything in his stride.

Loki chuckled. "I was intending to just go hunting, but I suppose we could look for vegetables in the process. I heard that there's a leafy plant not unlike cabbage in this area."

Tony just nodded slowly, then said "So you expect me to obtain food without buying it? This'll be a first."

"Ah, you're growing in so many ways, my little thrall," Loki said, fetching Tony a bag and a pair of knives.

-O.O-

As they tracked across the mountainside, Loki interrogated Tony.

"You remember exactly when you realised your love for me, yes?" Loki asked. "Tell me about it in every detail."

Tony pondered that for a while, stopping to scratch himself on the scruff.

"It's a bit blurry," he admitted. "I woke up, and then I just _knew._ Knew where you were too; upstairs. It was like a fairy tale."

"Of course it was. And this was completely unprompted? Why were you unconscious?"

"Oh, wow," Tony said. He took a seat. "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

"Of course you don't," Loki said with mild exasperation. "That's how it works. Tell me."

"I can't."

_"Tell me,"_ Loki said, adding a little magic to his voice as he pushed against the _bindeifni._

Tony sat down, hard. "Okay," he breathed. "Okay. I working on something. That I know. Something Fury wanted me to do. It's...it hurts. Why does it hurt?"

"You can feel the spell?" Loki asked him.

Loki himself could feel the spell tensing and twisting.

"What the fuck is going on?" Tony said suddenly. "How did I -"

Then he took another deep breath, and returned to his new normal. "Fury asked me to do a bit of an inquest into your magic, right? Because you're way too good at it for his tiny brain. So I had a few scans and all that, and I was working on replicating it."

"How did you go from that to casting a _bindeifni?"_ Loki asked.

"I cracked it!" Tony grinned, his posture changing to something triumphant, though he looked slightly dazed from his little episode. "I did it. I actually got a perfect map of your magic and how you channel it, and I was getting JARVIS to run simulations. And then I blacked out."

"I daresay I can fill in those blanks. You created magic, then you attempted to turn the machine creating it off. But the spell had already been generated, so it did what it was supposed to; attached me to the person it was pointed at, and this ensued," Loki guessed.

"What's going on?" Tony said confusedly. It wasn't good, when thralls finally became properly aware of the spell. It could lead to mental damage, among other nasty side effects.

Loki valued Tony's prodigeous intelligence enough to crouch down and place his hands on either side of Tony's head, then will the knowledge of the spell out of his head.

Tony relaxed for a second, then perked up, all memory of the encounter gone. All he registered was Loki's hands on his face and their great proximity, and immediately leaned in for a kiss.

"No, don't," Loki said firmly.

Tony pouted. Then spotted something behind Loki and ripped it out. "Is this one of your elf cabbages?"

-O.O-

The Avengers heard about what had happened, but only after SHIELD had in fact gone in for the arrest. Apparently Fury hadn't wanted any of them to tip them off, in case they were all in cahoots.

Which they weren't.

From the perspective of the Avengers, Tony had inexplicably revealed that he was dating Loki. Clint had said that this confirmed his theory about why Tony had been spending so much time 'by himself' as of late. Thor was blatantly gobsmacked. Steve had been disapproving, but ultimately decided that he couldn't be bothered protesting. Nat and Bruce had had the same opinion; they were going to stay out of it until they were required to break Loki's bits for any given reason. But all they knew was that they were dating.

And then all of a sudden they heard that Tony had been selling SHIELD secrets that had nearly resulted in the destruction of the Helicarrier, and another attack by Doom that could have turned out much messier than before.

Over the next few days, everything came out. Except the love spell, of course, because that would be too helpful. The number of secure files that had been accessed by various people around the world, especially in Madripoor, was worrying. Add that to the fact that a concerned JARVIS revealed footage of Loki obtaining information from Stark gratefully while Stark nattered happily beside him, and everyone at SHIELD was sure that Tony had gone to the dark side.

The Avengers wanted to believe the best of Tony, and Thor of Loki, but it just didn't look that good.

"There must be some kind of circumstance," Thor sighed. "This can't be as it appears."

"It looks pretty damning, Thor," Steve said. "But we haven't talked to either of them. Can you find them?"

"By myself, I cannot. With Heimdall's all-seeing eyes, perhaps. Loki's tricks extend to making himself unfindable," Thor said. "He may be...distracted by Tony enough to not notice."

"I don't think any of us want to think about Tony and Loki holed up in some sex dungeon," Clint said. "We need to find them, now. Can Loki leave Earth?"

"Yes, unfortunately, though he is at least limited to the Nine Realms," Thor said. "I will return to Asgard immediately."

And with that, he headed outside.

Natasha spoke up then. "The Face Trace and satellite tracking have already been activated. There isn't much we can do in terms of tracking them down, so I recommend we leave it to the professionals."

"JARVIS? Anything?" Clint asked hopefully.

"Master and his accomplice discuss their future location upon their return to Avengers' Tower, as shown here," JARVIS said, opening a screen.

"You couldn't have opened with that?" Clint said, a little exasperated.

"You did not ask, Master Barton," JARVIS replied. There was probably a little sarcasm in there.

The short clip told them literally everything they needed to know. Clint rushed outside to tell Thor, but he was already gone. So he shouted at the sky for a little while, to little result.

"We can't go to Alfheim without him," Steve pointed out. "We have to wait."

Which just gave Tony and Loki a little more time.

-O.O-

That time was spent well. There was nothing much to do, so Loki kept on with his studies while Tony went through all of Loki's things curiously, then started building his own things. They fossicked about for food once a day. Tony developed a proper interest in Loki's magic. Loki tolerated Tony's bullshit to a greater extent, humouring his little constructions.

Things got downright cosy in the few days they stayed there. Especially since there was only one bed.

"How long are we staying here?" Tony asked on the fourth morning.

"Until the pressure drops and we can return to Midgard," Loki told him. "Get ready. We need meat."

Tony obliged, searching out his shoes and jacket, then moving to the door.

"No need to leave. I'm having fun here-"

The door was then smashed in, throwing Tony to the other side of the cabin, and then through the wall of the cabin.

"Loki," Thor said. "I have found you."

Loki wasn't listening. "Tony!" he cried out in shock.


	5. Better To Have Loved And Lost

**Chapter 5: Better To Have Loved And Lost**

Loki had felt Tony get hurt through the bond. Namely, that the bond had gotten weaker once Tony had hit the wall, which indicated a weakening of the soul, which indicated that something was really wrong.

So he had absolutely no patience for Thor's bullshit. In fact, he threw up a force field that actively stopped Thor from reaching him as he dove across the room.

Tony had gone out one wall, which was fortunately only made of Alfheimr wood, which was the approximate strength of pine and therefore wasn't too bad.

The issue was undoubtedly that there was a solid rock wall about two metres behind it, which Tony had impacted with some force.

Then he'd fallen down. His arm seemed to have developed an extra joint.

Loki didn't want to move him for fear of doing more damage.

"Loki?" Thor called, slowed down greatly by the impact of his actions.

Again, Loki didn't answer, just raised his hand and used it to scan Tony magically. Broken ribs. Broken arm. Internal bleeding. Minor head injury. It was outside of Loki's healing abilities.

"Get away from him!" Loki shouted. "Have you not done enough, Thor?"

"I simply sought to..." Thor said. "What have I done?"

"Broken him!" Loki replied sharply. It was a slightly ridiculous statement.

Then Loki took a few deep breaths and tried to think clearly. It was his fault, all his fault, that Stark was injured, and that wasn't Loki usual complex of finding someone to blame; it really was.

It had been a long time since Loki had fucked up and felt guilty about it. He found that he hadn't missed the sensation.

"You and I need to talk," Thor said.

"Now is not the time," Loki said. "Call Heimdall. Get him to take us to Asgard. Tony needs healing."

Thor looked at his fallen comrade and complied.

-O.O-

Loki still didn't want to move Tony once they'd appeared in Asgard, so he just teleported the pair of them to Eir's healing rooms.

The lady herself was surprised to see him, but people teleporting into her sickbay wasn't an uncommon occurrence, so she immediately got to work.

"What happened?" she asked.

Loki liked Eir. She didn't ask too many questions about how the exiled Loki came to be in her rooms, or why he had an injured human with him. She just wanted to get to work.

"My dear brother threw him into a stone cliff," Loki said acidly.

"Hm," Eir murmured, lifting Tony gently onto her soulforge. "Leave, please. You're overemotional."

"I am not-" Loki said sharply. Then he took a cooling breath. "Overemotional."

She just shot him a look. He left.

-O.O-

Thor and Odin came marching up to Loki in their authorative way as he waited outside of Eir's rooms.

"Loki," Odin said. "What has happened here?"

"Thor injured Stark," Loki said, as though it were that simple.

"Loki has committed terrible crimes with Stark on Midgard," Thor countered. "I was sent to find them and miscalculated my entry."

"You say 'miscalculated' like some calculating was involved," Loki said scathingly. "I have no interest in talking to you, Odin, and this is not a matter than involves you."

"Might I remind you that you have violated your exile by coming here, Loki?" Odin said. "Thor requires speech with you first, but we will have words."

"Oh, I'm sure," Loki said, refocusing on Thor and blocking out Odin entirely. Odin, who hadn't expecting much different, promptly left.

"How could you drag Stark down your immoral slope, Loki?" Thor asked. "He was a noble teammate."

"I didn't," Loki said shortly. "He did. The imbecile cast a_ bindeifni_ on himself that bonded to me."

Thor frowned. "Of what nature?"

"The _bindandi ást_. As I said, imbecile," Loki hissed.

"And, of course, you realised what had occurred and immediately diverted all your efforts to breaking the thrall," Thor said.

"Naturally," Loki said dryly. His voice was dripping with negative emotion.

"Brother, what am I to do with you?" Thor growled. "At this point, I am tempted to cast you into Muspelheim and have you stay there."

"I'd be running the place in a week."

Thor looked angry. Very angry. "You dragged Stark around like a pup on a leash-"

"Honestly, I'm surprised you expected better of me," Loki said, and before Thor could retaliate, Loki said "I don't care, Thor. I will have Stark healed. I will break the spell. And then life will go on."

Thor was about to speak again, but Loki looked at him in such a way that he didn't bother.

-O.O-

After about an hour or so Eir allowed Loki and Thor to see Tony, who was unconscious but apparently now perfectly healthy.

"I will assume that so long as I ask no questions, I will get no lies," Eir said resignedly as Loki thanked her for her work and then scooped Tony up to carry him.

Fortunately, by Asgardian standards, Tony was a lightweight. Loki's plan was to climb through Yggdrasil's branches and make his way back to Midgard, but Thor stopped him.

"Take me with you," Thor said, clasping Loki's upper arm. "You have many crimes to answer for."

"I suppose I do," Loki said. "I just want to put this right, first."

Stark wriggled a little in unconsciousness.

Loki pulled them through branches and into another realm.

-O.O-

Tony woke up as they appeared in his lab.

"Hey, beautiful," Tony said with a beaming smile. Notably, he was still over Loki's shoulder and was smiling at Loki's ass.

"Well, Tony, you're soon going to be freed from my oppressive reign," Loki said to him.

"The only oppressive reign around here is the one you're inflicting on your libido," Tony said happily as Loki placed him on his feet again. "Oh. Hey, Thor. Your brother's awesome."

"I confess, I'm surprised I did not realise this was a binding spell before. It has made him into a buffoon," Thor said.

"Watch your language," Loki said. "How cruel. Now, JARVIS, run last protocol regarding my magic and my dear buffoon's experiments."

A few minutes later, Loki had freed Tony, who was promptly knocked out again.

In the time before his return to consciousness, the Avengers arrived. Thor explained the situation while Loki sat off to the side looking mildly bored with everyone, especially when they started shouting at him.

Fortunately, they all stopped in time for Tony to wake up.

"What the fuck has been going on?" Tony said in utter confusion.

"Well-" Steve began.

"I can remember some crazy shit. Elf cabbages? Bean bags?" Tony said. He picked himself up off his workbench and kneaded his forehead. "And - Loki?"

Loki stood up, said "I am genuinely sorry. Thor can explain," to Tony, then vanished before Thor could restrain him and take him back to Asgard.

"But-" Tony said. Then he looked around at the Avengers, and curbed whatever he was planning to say.


End file.
